De-construction

Jacques Derrida developed de-construction, a perspective that focuses on the lack of a truth out there or at the centre to provide meaning. He showed how all western philosophical systems are dependent on a center God, the self, the unconscious but structuralism had show that the center is a fiction merely another signified that has no being beyond language. Furthur more, Derrida focuses on the binary pairs that make meaning, arguing that rather than being polar opposites each was dependent on the other for meaning and existence. He also showed how in all binaries, one of the terms was always subordinated to the other man/woman good/evil. To describe how meaning is produced, Derrida developed the term difference, meaning to differ and to defer. He focuses in particular on the binary speech/writing in which speech has been seen to provide a guarantee of subjectivity and presence in the history of philosophy and linguistics.